China-USITO

Overview

TIA’s Relationship with the United States Information Technology Office (USITO)

TIA is an original founder of the United States Information Technology Office (USITO) in Beijing, China. The office was established with the primary goal of assisting innovative U.S. high-tech companies to access and further open the world's largest single emerging market for information and telecommunications technology (ITC)-related products and services. Since the electronics, software, computer hardware, network and telecommunications industries have been designated priority areas for development in China's ambitious modernization program, USITO is committed to increasing the market share of U.S. companies in China's burgeoning IT sector.

USITO promotes trade and cooperation between the IT industries of the United States and China. USITO strives to make China's IT market more accessible to U.S. companies by providing market development assistance and information on government policy, regulations and trends in key IT markets. USITO serves as a locus for policy coordination and advocacy projects in addition to its daily market development efforts, which include locating joint venture partners and distributors, organizing industry roundtables and trade missions, and facilitating business opportunities. USITO also works to foster an improved intellectual property rights environment in China.

Founded in 1994 and currently supported by TIA, Tech America, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Semiconductor Industry Association, and the Software and Information Industries Association, USITO serves as the voice for the U.S. ICT industry in the People's Republic of China. www.usito.org

Recent Activity

2010 Strategic and Economic DIalogue (S&ED) Outcomes

The second Cabinet-level Meeting of the U.S.–China Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) was held in Beijing on May 24-25, 2010.The S&ED is an annual dialogue between the U.S. and Chinese government that provides a forum to discuss critical issues concerning the bilateral relationship and the global economy. Through the Department of Treasury website (http://www.treasury.gov/), you will be able to access the following documents that were released on the meeting:

Meeting highlights of particular interest to TIA and its members include:

Agreement to launch expert and high-level bilateral innovation discussions with all relevant U.S. and Chinese agencies and to take into account the results of these discussions in formulating and implementing Chinese innovation promotion measures.

China agreeing to remove some of the troubling elements of its product accreditation circular and has delayed implementation to assess public comments. Further engagement will be necessary to ensure remaining concerns are addressed.

China agreeing to reduce barriers to foreign investment in services, high-technology goods, high-end manufacturing, and energy saving products and to accelerate and narrow the scope of foreign investment reviews.

China agreeing to submit a “robust” revised offer by July 2010 to join the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement and issued draft regulations for public comment containing a 50 percent local content provision.